Tesla launches long-awaited Robotaxi in Austin
Tesla held its first Robotaxi rides in Austin on Sunday, a cautious and modest launch that came more than a decade after CEO Elon Musk first pitched the idea.
A group of social media influencers and Tesla investors took the first trips on Sunday, with many of them posting videos about their experience riding in the driverless cars — albeit with a human observer in the passenger seat.
Musk said the company was being 'super paranoid about safety' ahead of the launch. The vehicles were limited to certain areas in Austin and included a safety monitor.
'Culmination of a decade of hard work,' Musk wrote on X on Sunday.
The tentative launch is a key step toward Musk's longtime ambition of Tesla's fully autonomous vehicles shuttling paid passengers around the country with no one behind the wheel. Investors have been eager for Tesla to unveil its fully self-driving vehicle, as Musk has staked the future of the company on the technology, saying that 'the value of Tesla, overwhelmingly, is autonomy.'
Tesla chose Austin as its initial launch site because Texas has a comparatively relaxed regulatory environment for autonomous vehicles. On Thursday, a group of Democratic state lawmakers called on Tesla to delay its launch until after Sept. 1, when new state-level safety requirements for autonomous vehicles take effect. The updated law, which overhauls the state's 2017 framework, requires commercial autonomous vehicle operators transporting passengers or goods to obtain prior authorization from the Department of Motor Vehicles, among other measures.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently sent Tesla a letter requesting details about the safety measures in place for the Robotaxi launch. NHTSA said Friday it had received Tesla's response and was in the process of reviewing it.
Tesla also received a permit this year in California to provide fully autonomous taxi rides — initially to employees — on a 'prearranged' basis, with a safety driver present.
The Robotaxi rides in Austin are being conducted in Tesla's midsize Model Y vehicles, not the futuristic Cybercab without a steering wheel and pedals that Musk unveiled last year. That vehicle — envisioned as a $30,000 'lounge on wheels' — is expected to launch in the next few years.
Though long the leader in the U.S. electric vehicle market, Tesla is playing catch-up in the realm of autonomous vehicles. Google's Waymo vehicles are a regular presence on the streets of San Francisco and have also been rolled out commercially in Austin, Phoenix and Los Angeles. For months the company has been testing its service with safety monitors aboard in Washington and also plans to expand to New York, Atlanta and Miami.
On Sunday, the first users of the Robotaxi service generally seemed pleased with the experience as they were dropped off at supermarkets and other spots around Austin.
'No-one is in the driver seat and the safety monitor in the passenger seat does not have a steering or pedals,' Tesla fan Sawyer Merritt wrote on X after his first ride. 'It was awesome.'
The Robotaxi rollout comes at a critical time for Musk, who has distanced himself from Washington and is trying to redefine his image through Tesla and his other companies.
Investors initially hoped Musk's ties with President Donald Trump could boost Tesla's fortunes, causing the stock, which closed at $251 on Election Day, to soar as high as $480 in December. Those gains evaporated as Musk embraced a contentious role within the administration as the driver of deep cuts to federal personnel and grants. The stock dropped to $222 in April after the company announced a 71 percent plunge in quarterly earnings from a year earlier.
The longer-term effects of Musk's ties to Trump are unclear after a testy public falling out between the two earlier this month. Tesla stock closed at $322 on Friday.
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